iPad App Development, Page 2

iPad Browser Considerations

The mobile version of Safari has long been a leader in terms of embracing cutting-edge standards. Therefore, several supported features might surprise you due to our general preconceptions that mobile devices are essentially hobbled devices. If anything, mobile Safari offers several capabilities which outpace those found on the desktop. For instance the iOS 4.2 release included enhanced support for HTML5 and WebSockets.

iOS 4.2 also added support for the iPad accelerometer, which opens up the possibility of building Web applications involving truly unique interfaces. Alberto Sarullo published an accelerometer demonstration (works on the iPad/iPhone only) which really drives home the compelling nature of this feature. I also suggest reading his notes about the new accelerometer Safari features.

Native geolocation features have also been available to iOS since version 3.0. These JavaScript extensions give developers the ability to easily identify the user's location to varying degrees based on how the user is connecting to the Internet.

Where To From Here?

Web-based iPad application development strikes me as an area rife with opportunity, which has received strikingly little attention. If you're interested in learning more about this topic I suggest starting with Apple's official Safari developer documentation, which contains an impressive amount of information about the mobile Safari browser.

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Jason Gilmore--Contributing Editor, PHP--is the founder of EasyPHPWebsites.com, and author of the popular book, "Easy PHP Websites with the Zend Framework". Jason is a cofounder and speaker chair of CodeMash, a nonprofit organization tasked with hosting an annual namesake developer's conference, and was a member of the 2008 MySQL Conference speaker selection board.